I committed to $5,000 US for a sixth of the server when it was $30K... there's also about $10K for the other part and the server went up to $34K. I think I can add the extra to make it an even sixth. But due to my daily transaction limit I have to start matching now as everyone has been so generous. :^) We're well over halfway there in roughly half a day! Over $2,600 so far.

So here's my first matching donation:

You gave $1,500.00

to SETI@home

on December 7, 2017

via Visa
Your confirmation number is 304824

I want all the icons please! 😀“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”--- Margaret Mead

We now have icons, but I should space them from the names. They also disappear for a few seconds every time Matt's script runs, but I'll fix that. Still need to fix the problem with Keith's donation page. @SETIEric

On the Midnight Show (UTC), I see we have $1,430 in the collection plate already - I'm sure there's more in the reporting channel. [I think we had a buckshee $50 there before the fundraiser started]

So I'm nearly $3,000 down already. Brilliant! That's what it's all about! Keep up the good work.

The special icons and so on go on until 31st December, but let's see if we can crack this before Christmas. I'm off to bed now, but looking forward to seeing how much poorer I'm going to be by the morning.

I just wish that I could follow yours, Mr. Kevvy's and the Hanson family's example Richard, but I always seem to be paying out for cleaning up 1 of my kids' messes. :-(

Is it necessary to enter a specific set of words in the donation page for this money to go to the Parkes data fundraising rather than just the general SETI@home pot (e.g. "for the Parkes Data store server" in the 'Special Instructions for this gift' section) or is it just assumed that all current donations are for that purpose?GPU Users Group

Could we get an option in the forum preferences to turn off these special icons besides other people's names? All the moving ones take attention away from the message people have, especially when it's got the star turning one way and the fans on the videocard turning the other way. I can't seem to block these with my ad-blocker (uBlock Origin) without blocking all elements on the page.Jord

Ancient Astronaut Theorists can tell you that I do not help with tech questions via private message. Please use the forums for that.

Is it necessary to enter a specific set of words in the donation page for this money to go to the Parkes data fundraising rather than just the general SETI@home pot (e.g. "for the Parkes Data store server" in the 'Special Instructions for this gift' section) or is it just assumed that all current donations are for that purpose?

I think the plan is to treat all donations between now and December 31st as special fundraiser donations - so eligible for the new icons (and my matching funds) without any special action or wording on the donation page.

Obviously, if we exceed the target for the two specific machines, we aren't going to waste the extra on gold-plating the front panel or anything frivolous like that. I would expect Eric to review the specifications, and upgrade any parts that would contribute to making them faster, more reliable, longer-lasting or anything like that.

Beyond that, I assume that any further funds would go into the general pot for future needs - the most urgent of which is to hire extra staff to give Eric a break and a helping hand. He was already exhausted from spending 10 days nursing the science server before we launched this drive.

Looks like the results for the first 'Berkeley Day' (to midnight PST) are in, and assuming they include Mr. Kevvy's first matching payment, I make the new funds $4,431. Thank you all for a brilliant effort - so far. I make that nearly 80% of the way to the Parkes Data Store, and nearly ready to start on the development machine. Now all we need is a developer to use it :-)

Could we get an option in the forum preferences to turn off these special icons besides other people's names? All the moving ones take attention away from the message people have, especially when it's got the star turning one way and the fans on the videocard turning the other way. I can't seem to block these with my ad-blocker (uBlock Origin) without blocking all elements on the page.

Is it necessary to enter a specific set of words in the donation page for this money to go to the Parkes data fundraising rather than just the general SETI@home pot (e.g. "for the Parkes Data store server" in the 'Special Instructions for this gift' section) or is it just assumed that all current donations are for that purpose?

I am pretty sure that during the campaign all the donations collected from anywhere are going towards it.“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”--- Margaret Mead

Is it necessary to enter a specific set of words in the donation page for this money to go to the Parkes data fundraising rather than just the general SETI@home pot (e.g. "for the Parkes Data store server" in the 'Special Instructions for this gift' section) or is it just assumed that all current donations are for that purpose?

I think the plan is to treat all donations between now and December 31st as special fundraiser donations - so eligible for the new icons (and my matching funds) without any special action or wording on the donation page.

Obviously, if we exceed the target for the two specific machines, we aren't going to waste the extra on gold-plating the front panel or anything frivolous like that. I would expect Eric to review the specifications, and upgrade any parts that would contribute to making them faster, more reliable, longer-lasting or anything like that.

Beyond that, I assume that any further funds would go into the general pot for future needs - the most urgent of which is to hire extra staff to give Eric a break and a helping hand. He was already exhausted from spending 10 days nursing the science server before we launched this drive.

Well, Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far, I think that this is going to be over with before Christmas at the rate it's going. And Richard, I'm with you, watching my getting poorer meter climbing feels quite good actually. And yes, my thought was that if we exceed the $ amount necessary to purchase the computers, the remainder will be spent on other necessary hardware that Eric deems appropriate, I totally trust his judgement with that one.